FLORA OF SOUTH AMEEICA. 35 



Andes from Colombia to Chili. Manioc and yams, even more indispensable to 

 certain negro and West Indian populations of Latin America than the potato can 

 ever be to the Germans and Irish, are also indigenous in the southern section of 

 the New World. From the same region also come a species of bean, the tomato, 

 the ground-nut, cacao theohroma (" food of the gods "), the pineapple, guava, 

 chirimoya, and many other fruits now flourishing in the tropical zone of the Old 

 World. 



Sooner or later South America will supply the gardens of Europe with other 

 economic plants not yet acclimatised, such as the quinoa, a species of chenopodium, 

 whose seeds when ground yield a kind of bread; the arracacha root, which resembles 

 celery ; maté (" Paraguay tea "), which takes the place of tea in Argentina and 

 South Brazil ; perhaps, also, the ceiba (cheese-tree), which attains a great size 

 in the Bolivar district, Venezuela. The industries have received from South 

 America the sap of various rubber plants ; and medicine is indebted to it for, 

 amongst other products, such drugs as ipecacuanha ; tolu balm ; cinchona, which 

 dispels fevers; and the coca leaf, which allays pain and the pangs of hunger. 



In return the South American continent has been enriched by nearly all the 

 alimentary and industrial species of Europe and Asia. The banana spread so 

 rapidly in the hot regions that most naturalists supposed it to be indigenous ; it 

 was introduced into the New World by the now almost forgotten bishop, Thomas 

 de Berlanga, the same benefactor of his kind to whom we owe the discovery of the 

 Galapagos Islands.* Unfortunately, with the useful species came also the weeds 

 of the Eastern Hemisphere. On the elevated plain of Bogota, as well as on the 

 surrounding slopes, the foxglove [digitalis j^urpurea) thrives vigorously. 



Fauna. 



The fauna of the South American mainland is of a very distinct character. 

 In this relatively isolated division of the globe the animal forms have necessarily 

 diverged from the types prevailing elsewhere. But there survive none of the 

 huge beasts of former epochs, such as the " mastodon of the Andes " whose 

 remains are found in the gravels of the Chilian lacustrine formations. Hence 

 South America has no longer any animals comparable in size to the Asiatic or 

 African elephant, the giraffe, hippopotamus, or rhinoceros, the tapir being, in 

 fact, the largest of all its mammals. There are, however, long-tailed apes, differ- 

 ing greatly from the anthropoids of the Old World, and from the lemurs of 

 Madagascar. 



The forests are infested by carnivora of the feline and canine families, by 

 bears, martins, otters, and weasels, while the order of bats is represented by nume- 

 rous species, including the blood-sucking vampire. South America has no camels, 

 which are here replaced by the analogous but smaller llamas and vicunas of the 

 Andes. Various forms of marsupials range the whole continent as far south as 

 the southern Argentine states and Patagonia. The avifauna has received an 

 enormous development, containing no less than 2,300 species ; and the fishes of 



* Marcos Jimenez de la Espada, Boletin de la Sociedad Geograjiea de Madrid, 1891. 



